Love The Girlfriends' Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood? Readers share 100 books like The Girlfriends' Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood...

By Vicki Iovine,

Here are 100 books that The Girlfriends' Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood fans have personally recommended if you like The Girlfriends' Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay: And Other Things I Had to Learn as a New Mom

Claudine Wolk Author Of It Gets Easier! . . . And Other Lies We Tell New Mothers

From my list on making new motherhood easier.

Why am I passionate about this?

I thought being a new mom would be easy. Ha! I was shocked at how hard it was. My little baby—who mostly cried and came with no instructions—was a mystery. Determined to figure him out, I interviewed any mom who would talk to me—family members, girlfriends, moms at the YMCA, moms at parks, strangers on planes—any mom who would give me insight. They offered advice on burping, rocking, and sleep schedules and then morphed into advice on my relationship and warnings to hold on to my own dreams. The honesty and humor helped so much that I wrote a book on the subject to help other moms.

Claudine's book list on making new motherhood easier

Claudine Wolk Why did Claudine love this book?

Any "New Mom" book that is written with humor and honesty is OK is my book! Ms. Wilder's book is refreshing, honest, and funny on many topics "new mom" related. She discusses many issues a "new mom" will encounter. She starts with the issue of "instant bonding"—what a relief to know that I was not only one to take a few weeks to fall in love. From there she discusses other biggie "new mom" topics - the realities of breastfeeding, bottle feeding, baby-blues, feeding solid foods, babysitters, venturing out with your newborn, other new mothers, handling friends without children, sex after baby, A-type mommies, and different parenting styles, and much more. This is a book you can read in one sitting or one topic at a time. The author's honest, witty style is engaging and entertaining, and I suspect will give many "New Moms" a peaceful night's sleep.

By Stefanie Wilder-Taylor,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The moment the second line on the pee stick turns pink, women discover they've entered a world of parenting experts.

Friends, family, colleagues, the UPS delivery guy -- suddenly everybody is a trove of advice, much of it contradictory and confusing. With dire warnings of what will happen if baby is fed on demand and even direr warnings of what will happen if he isn't, not to mention hordes of militant "lactivists," cosleeping advocates, and books on what to worry about next, modern parenthood can seem like a minefield.

In busy Mom-friendly short essays, Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay…


Book cover of I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids: Reinventing Modern Motherhood

Claudine Wolk Author Of It Gets Easier! . . . And Other Lies We Tell New Mothers

From my list on making new motherhood easier.

Why am I passionate about this?

I thought being a new mom would be easy. Ha! I was shocked at how hard it was. My little baby—who mostly cried and came with no instructions—was a mystery. Determined to figure him out, I interviewed any mom who would talk to me—family members, girlfriends, moms at the YMCA, moms at parks, strangers on planes—any mom who would give me insight. They offered advice on burping, rocking, and sleep schedules and then morphed into advice on my relationship and warnings to hold on to my own dreams. The honesty and humor helped so much that I wrote a book on the subject to help other moms.

Claudine's book list on making new motherhood easier

Claudine Wolk Why did Claudine love this book?

Finally, the truth about motherhood in an easy-to-read, entertaining style. I picked this gem up before I went down to the shore and my girlfriend and I read it to each other in front of our spouses on the beach. My favorite part of the book is the honest, hilarious quotes from the women who were interviewed. Their insights were thought-provoking! (Especially the gal who stated quite clearly what is not foreplay!) 

By Trisha Ashworth, Amy Nobile,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Scratch the surface of the Super Mom and you may find someone who isn't even sure she can get through the day, let alone "do it all." Or at least that's what Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile felt. Curious, they began asking other mothers and found that after twenty minutes of touting the joys of motherhood, moms would inevitably admit that they were stressed out, exhausted, and depressed that their child's first word was "Shrek." After conducting over 100 interviews, Trisha and Amy discovered trends too similar and too widespread to be ignored. Whether the mom was in the office…


Book cover of Baby Laughs: The Naked Truth About the First Year of Mommyhood

Claudine Wolk Author Of It Gets Easier! . . . And Other Lies We Tell New Mothers

From my list on making new motherhood easier.

Why am I passionate about this?

I thought being a new mom would be easy. Ha! I was shocked at how hard it was. My little baby—who mostly cried and came with no instructions—was a mystery. Determined to figure him out, I interviewed any mom who would talk to me—family members, girlfriends, moms at the YMCA, moms at parks, strangers on planes—any mom who would give me insight. They offered advice on burping, rocking, and sleep schedules and then morphed into advice on my relationship and warnings to hold on to my own dreams. The honesty and humor helped so much that I wrote a book on the subject to help other moms.

Claudine's book list on making new motherhood easier

Claudine Wolk Why did Claudine love this book?

If you're looking for a good laugh and naked honesty about pregnancy, this book is for you. Jenny lets it all hang out, sometimes off the side of her bed. It is refreshing to get a "behind the scenes" glimpse at how another woman experiences the "not often talked about" issues of pregnancy and how she handles those issues. Famous or no, pregnancy does not discriminate among women. Jenny's message resonates. The decision of how to handle your issues is up to you, but exposure to Jenny's experiences will make your journey that much easier. Belly Laughs is a great gift for any pregnant girlfriend or for yourself. My favorite parts of the book are when Jenny visits the proctologist (the people at the community pool were staring at me as I laughed out loud) and her tips for husbands, they are truly inspired.

By Jenny McCarthy,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Baby Laughs as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

New mothers and fathers will find much-needed relief and insight in this perceptive and outrageously funny account of what it truly means when you bring home your very own bundle of joy...

Jenny McCarthy’s hilarious, no-holds-barred personality has made her an instantly recognizable TV personality and a bestselling author. In Baby Laughs she examines the full range of challenges that new mothers anf fathers face, including:

• The humiliations of postnatal “numbing spray,” Tucks medicated pads, and adult diapers; jelly belly, balding, and gum disease; and becoming a “five-foot puke rag” for the baby
•…


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Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up…

Book cover of The Second Nine Months: One Woman Tells the Real Truth about Becoming a Mom. Finally.

Claudine Wolk Author Of It Gets Easier! . . . And Other Lies We Tell New Mothers

From my list on making new motherhood easier.

Why am I passionate about this?

I thought being a new mom would be easy. Ha! I was shocked at how hard it was. My little baby—who mostly cried and came with no instructions—was a mystery. Determined to figure him out, I interviewed any mom who would talk to me—family members, girlfriends, moms at the YMCA, moms at parks, strangers on planes—any mom who would give me insight. They offered advice on burping, rocking, and sleep schedules and then morphed into advice on my relationship and warnings to hold on to my own dreams. The honesty and humor helped so much that I wrote a book on the subject to help other moms.

Claudine's book list on making new motherhood easier

Claudine Wolk Why did Claudine love this book?

I loved this book. The second nine months is the true story of Vicki Glembocki's journey into those first few months after childbirth. Although the story is a memoir, Glembocki writes it so well that it reads like a novel—a novel you won't put down until you are finished. From beginning to end, Glembocki bravely bares her soul for the new mom's benefit and cleverly manages to hit all the "new mom" topics through her personal experience. From breastfeeding, to newborn crying, to changes in relationships, to new mom bonding, to finding other new mom friends, to back to work issues, Glembocki manages to cover them all with wit and candor. I found her new mom tale "spot on accurate." It is so exciting that truth is finally coming out. Take advantage of the gift this author has created, New Moms, and read about her experience. Moms will find that…

By Vicki Glembocki,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Second Nine Months as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When her daughter Blair was born, Vicki Glembocki experienced the first blast of maternal bliss that she assumed would carry her through the next nine months of sleepless nights and all the challenges that come with a new baby. So why was the transition into motherhood so hard? Because no one told her the real deal about what lay ahead. Finally, one mother gives the unvarnished truth about those first months, from the worry over whether you're bonding, to the suspicion that you're the only woman on earth who lacks the maternal gene." Funny and brutally honest, Glembocki lets new…


Book cover of Birthing a Slave: Motherhood and Medicine in the Antebellum South

Tracey Rose Peyton Author Of Night Wherever We Go

From my list on race and reproductive rights.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a fiction writer interested in exploring big historical moments through the lives of ordinary people. The extensive fight for reproductive rights and bodily autonomy for women, specifically black women, has long been a concern, admittedly for selfish reasons. This ever-shifting terrain—from eugenics and sterilization to coerced birth control and the rise in maternal mortality rates—was initially perplexing to me and it took a great deal of reading to make sense of it. Such research not only informed my historical novel, Night Wherever We Go, but much of how I understand the world. I’d argue one can’t fully comprehend the current abortion rights moment without understanding how race and reproduction are so deeply intertwined.

Tracey's book list on race and reproductive rights

Tracey Rose Peyton Why did Tracey love this book?

Schwartz’s book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how central black women’s reproduction was to the project of American slavery.

The book illustrates how new doctors needing specialization and clientele found common cause with slaveholders’ needs to control the reproductive capabilities of their enslaved workforce. The ongoing conflicts between slaveholders, enslaved women, and the doctors who were employed to thwart any attempts of resistance and autonomy on their part is truly mind-blowing.

Anyone tracking our current state of affairs post the Dobbs decision, with doctors in states like Texas being forced to choose between providing women necessary healthcare or complying with state law, can see the looming shadow of the history explored in Schwartz’s illuminating book.

By Marie Jenkins Schwartz,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Birthing a Slave as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The deprivations and cruelty of slavery have overshadowed our understanding of the institution's most human dimension: birth. We often don't realize that after the United States stopped importing slaves in 1808, births were more important than ever; slavery and the southern way of life could continue only through babies born in bondage.

In the antebellum South, slaveholders' interest in slave women was matched by physicians struggling to assert their own professional authority over childbirth, and the two began to work together to increase the number of infants born in the slave quarter. In unprecedented ways, doctors tried to manage the…


Book cover of Strong as a Mother: How to Stay Healthy, Happy, and (Most Importantly) Sane from Pregnancy to Parenthood

Alena Dillon Author Of My Body Is a Big Fat Temple: An Ordinary Story of Pregnancy and Early Motherhood

From my list on for expecting moms who want the truth.

Why am I passionate about this?

There is a dearth of books that span the emotional journey into motherhood. An old adage directs authors to write the book they would like to read, so I kept that in mind as I began the journey myself. Throughout my pregnancy and postpartum experience, I was often surprised by perfectly ordinary occurrences that aren’t often discussed. There is a hush cast on anything that isn’t purely nurturing and romantic, which means that mothers who encounter unpleasantness are blindsided, and consider themselves aberrations. I wrote my book as honestly as possible to normalize the normal and to offer myself as a compatriot to those mothers. 

Alena's book list on for expecting moms who want the truth

Alena Dillon Why did Alena love this book?

This pregnancy and postpartum guide is compassionate, inclusive, and practical. It’s broken down by stages of the journey, inviting the reader to bounce around to the chapters of pertinence, and covers Rope’s personal experience, contributions from experts, as well as anecdotes from other mothers. Apart from providing critical information, the author’s goal here is to make the reader feel more confident and comfortable with her motherhood experience and to normalize the perfectly healthy responses that are often stigmatized.  

By Kate Rope,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Strong as a Mother as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Strong as a Mother is a practical and compassionate guide to preparing for a smooth start to motherhood. Everyone knows the secret to having "the Happiest Baby on the Block." This is your guide to being the Sanest Mommy on the Block. It will prepare you with humour and grace for what lies ahead, give you the tools you need to take care of yourself, permission to struggle at times, and professional advice on how to move through it when you do. This book will become a dog-eared resource on your nightstand, offering you the same care and support that…


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Book cover of This Animal Body

This Animal Body by Meredith Walters,

Neuroscience PhD student Frankie Conner has finally gotten her life together—she’s determined to discover the cause of her depression and find a cure for herself and everyone like her. But the first day of her program, she meets a group of talking animals who have an urgent message they refuse…

Book cover of Mom Genes: Inside the New Science of Our Ancient Maternal Instinct

Nicole Hackett Author Of The Perfect Ones

From my list on the non-Instagrammable parts of motherhood.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I was pregnant for the first time, I knew exactly the sort of mother I was going to be. I had read all the articles, bookmarked all the tastefully filtered Instagram posts. But then I had my son, and I realized almost immediately how little I knew. It turns out that while those tender Instagram moments do happen (and they truly are magic), there are just as many moments that can only be described as: WTF? My novel, The Perfect Ones, goes deep behind the screens of two Instagram influencers and their messy, conflicting, and fundamentally human feelings on motherhood. Here are five more books about the parts that don’t make the Instagram grid.

Nicole's book list on the non-Instagrammable parts of motherhood

Nicole Hackett Why did Nicole love this book?

I normally gravitate toward fiction, so this one came out of left field for me.

Abigail Tucker, a correspondent for Smithsonian magazine, dives deep into the science of what makes a mother. I think I enjoyed this book so much because it almost reads like fiction between its accessible (and surprisingly funny!) tone and the stranger-than-fiction revelations about what happens to a woman’s brain when she becomes a mom.

By Abigail Tucker,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Mom Genes as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Lion in the Living Room comes a fascinating and provocative exploration of the biology of motherhood that "is witty, reassuring, and takes motherhood out of the footnotes and places it front and center-where it belongs" (Louann Brizendine, MD, New York Times bestselling author).

Everyone knows how babies are made, but scientists are only just beginning to understand the making of a mother. Mom Genes reveals the hard science behind our tenderest maternal impulses, tackling questions such as why mothers are destined to mimic their own moms (or not), how maternal aggression…


Book cover of Doctoring Freedom: The Politics of African American Medical Care in Slavery and Emancipation

Andrew M. Wehrman Author Of The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution

From my list on understanding health and politics in the early US.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a historian of early American history who discovered the history of medicine somewhat by accident. As a history graduate student, I wanted to understand how ordinary Americans experienced the American Revolution. While digging through firsthand accounts written by average Americans, I came across a diary written by a sailor named Ashley Bowen. Although Bowen wrote made entries daily beginning in the 1760s, he hardly mentioned any of the political events that typically mark the coming of the American Revolution. Instead, day after day, he wrote about outbreaks of smallpox and how he volunteered to help his community. From then on, I began to understand just how central and inseparable health and politics are. 

Andrew's book list on understanding health and politics in the early US

Andrew M. Wehrman Why did Andrew love this book?

Gretchen Long’s book Doctoring Freedom includes remarkable stories not only of how Black people were abused and left out of American health care, such as it was in the 19th century, but centers the book on Black Americans’ efforts to support their health and their citizenship while being denied both. Long’s finely detailed case studies of Black doctors, such as John Donalson Austin who had been an enslaved herbal healer who was denied the right to practice when free, is one of many stories Long uncovers as she details the ways Black healers and doctors used clinics, hospitals, and dispensaries as sites of resistance to both medical and political authorities.

By Gretchen Long,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Doctoring Freedom as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For enslaved and newly freed African Americans, attaining freedom and citizenship without health for themselves and their families would have been an empty victory. Even before emancipation, African Americans recognized that control of their bodies was a critical battleground in their struggle for autonomy, and they devised strategies to retain at least some of that control. In Doctoring Freedom, Gretchen Long tells the stories of African Americans who fought for access to both medical care and medical education, showing the important relationship between medical practice and political identity.
Working closely with antebellum medical journals, planters' diaries, agricultural publications, letters from…


Book cover of French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure

Kenden Alfond Author Of Kosher Macros: 63 Recipes for Eating Everything (Kosher) for Physical Health and Emotional Balance

From my list on reset your mindset and enjoy eating in balance.

Why am I passionate about this?

My name is Kenden, I’m a psychotherapist and executive coach who focuses on Enneagram personality assessment and financial psychology and behavior. I have a side passion for writing Jewish cookbooks and creating modern minimalist Judica. I grew up in Maine, USA, and have since lived and worked in Afghanistan, India, DR Congo, Switzerland, and Cambodia. Nowadays I live in Paris. 

Kenden's book list on reset your mindset and enjoy eating in balance

Kenden Alfond Why did Kenden love this book?

Published in 2005, some parts of this book feel un-PC in light of the body positivity and beautiful-at-any-size movements.

With that said, I live in Paris and the food behavior and mindset observations that Mireille Guiliano shares are mostly true about French women. Whereas, American women are feeling worried/guilty about the next food they might eat, French women are daydreaming about the next food pleasure they will experience.

This book is easy to read because it tells an engaging story about her experience as a high school exchange student in the United States and how she gained weight. When she returned to France, her mother and the family doctor put her on a food regime and this led her to try to distill the essential French mindset about food and eating behaviors that allow people to enjoy food, eat well-balanced meals, and maintain a healthy lifelong body weight. 

By Mireille Guiliano,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked French Women Don't Get Fat as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The book that launched a French Revolution about how to approach healthy living: the ultimate non-diet book—now with more recipes.

“The perfect book.... A blueprint for building a healthy attitude toward food and exercise"—San Francisco Chronicle

French women don’t get fat, even though they enjoy bread and pastry, wine, and regular three-course meals. Unlocking the simple secrets of this “French paradox”—how they enjoy food while staying slim and healthy—Mireille Guiliano gives us a charming, inspiring take on health and eating for our times. For anyone who has slipped out of her Zone, missed the flight to…


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Book cover of The Curiosity Cycle: Preparing Your Child for the Ongoing Technological Explosion

The Curiosity Cycle by Jonathan Mugan,

The Curiosity Cycle is a book for parents and educators who want to teach their children to be active explorers of the world. Learning through curiosity leads to adaptive thinking because your child is continually trying to improve his or her understanding of the world, and new facts and ideas…

Book cover of A Matter of Death and Life

Helen Epstein Author Of Getting Through It: My Year of Cancer during Covid

From my list on getting through cancer treatment.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm a long-time journalist, wife, mother, and grandmother, who was diagnosed with GYN cancer at the beginning of the Covid pandemic in the spring of 2020. My usual subjects are the arts and trauma, but since I’m now one of the more than 600,000 American women with GYN cancer, I decided to write this report about my year of treatment. 

Helen's book list on getting through cancer treatment

Helen Epstein Why did Helen love this book?

A Matter of Life and Death is a deeply personal double memoir, written in alternating chapters by a long-married couple in their late 80s. Irvin Yalom is a psychiatrist and well-respected novelist; Marilyn Yalom, diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2019, was a professor of literature and women's studies. Emotionally intelligent and unusually articulate, the couple was married for 65 years. Though plodding at times, they document in detail the last year of Marilyn's life, from diagnosis to experimental treatment to hospice to physician-assisted death. It is written as a testament as well as a guide.

By Marilyn Yalom, Irvin D. Yalom,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked A Matter of Death and Life as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A year-long journey by the renowned psychiatrist and his writer wife after her terminal diagnosis, as they reflect on how to love and live without regret.

Internationally acclaimed psychiatrist and author Irvin Yalom devoted his career to counseling those suffering from anxiety and grief. But never had he faced the need to counsel himself until his wife, esteemed feminist author Marilyn Yalom, was diagnosed with cancer. In A Matter of Death and Life, Marilyn and Irv share how they took on profound new struggles: Marilyn to die a good death, Irv to live on without her.

In alternating accounts of…


Book cover of Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay: And Other Things I Had to Learn as a New Mom
Book cover of I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids: Reinventing Modern Motherhood
Book cover of Baby Laughs: The Naked Truth About the First Year of Mommyhood

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